Praying with Faith

When we come across a verse like Mark 11:24, we can easily miss the point. Some Christians don’t pay attention to Jesus’ hyperbolic teaching style or broader biblical teaching on God’s nature, and we turn Mark 11:24 into a rule for how to get what we want in prayer. The key, these Christians say, is to have enough faith, which means convincing ourselves that we already have what we seek from the Lord. If we can make ourselves believe something, then God is obligated to do it. Prayer, in this sense, becomes a means by which we can exercise sovereignty over God by our ability to convince ourselves that something we want is true. It is no longer an occasion for putting ourselves and our needs into the hands of the King of kings and Lord of lords.